22 August: Mohave Desert

On this date in 1826 the American explorer Jedediah Smith and his crew set out from the Great Salt Lake, Utah, to cross the Mohave Desert, the first Europeans to do so. They arrived in San Diego the following November. 10 things you might not know about the Mohave Desert.

1. It is named after the indigenous Mohave people, and is sometimes spelled Mojave, which is the Spanish version of the name.

2. It covers an area of 54,000-square-miles (140,000 km2) over four American states: California, Nevada, Arizona and Utah.

3. The Desert contains various Silver, tungsten, Iron and Gold deposits, and has been an important centre for mining. Some of the mining towns, such as the silver and copper-mining town of Calico, are now ghost towns. There’s also an abandoned rail depot at Kelso, California.

4. That said, there are also some thriving metropolitan areas on its edges, including St. George, Utah and Lancaster, California; but probably the best known city in the area is Las Vegas.

5. The Mohave is known for extremes of temperature, meaning it is very hot in summer and freezing cold in winter. It gets about five inches of precipitation a year.

6. One of the unique living things the extreme climate has given rise to is the Joshua Tree (Yucca brevifolia) which is endemic to the desert and doesn’t grow anywhere else. If the name sounds familiar, it’s probably because U2 named one of their albums after it. The tree is said to have got its common name from some Mormons who crossed the desert in the 19^th century. The trees were landmarks to them, helping them find their way, and they were reminded of the Biblical story in which Joshua keeps his hands reached out for an extended period of time to enable the Israelites in their conquest of Canaan (Joshua 8:18–26 if you want to look it up).

7. The Mohave has played a part in military history. During World War II, large portions of the desert were used for training soldiers in desert warfare, and today, Edwards Air Force Base and Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake are located here.

8. The highest point is Charleston Peak, 11,918 feet (3,633 meters) above sea level. The lowest is Death Valley at 282 feet (85.5 meters) below sea level, also the lowest place in North America, which has contributed to making the valley one of the hottest and driest places on Earth.

9. Being a desert, it doesn’t have much in the way of rivers, but there are two significant ones which flow underneath it: the Mojave River and the Amargosa River. There are also some lakes, the Manix, Mojave, and the Little Mojave lakes, which although fairly large are shallow.

10. It’s a popular place for filming music videos. Bodies by Robbie Williams, Breathless by The Corrs, Desert Rose by Sting and That Don't Impress Me Much by Shania Twain among them.

I also write novels and short stories. If you like superheroes, psychic detectives and general weirdness you might enjoy them. 

Check out my works of fiction at https://juliehowlinauthor.wordpress.com/my-books/

7 August: Bavaria

Today is the feast day of St Cajetan, a patron saint of Bavaria. 10 things you might not know about Bavaria.

1. Bavaria is the largest state in Germany, encompassing the south east of the country.

2. There are more than 300 cities and towns in Bavaria. Munich is the largest, other places include Bamberg, Bayreuth, Nuremberg and Augsburg.

3. Bavaria is landlocked: bounded to the north by the states of Thuringia and Saxony, to the east by the Czech Republic, to the south and southeast by Austria, and to the west by the states of Baden-Württemberg and Hessen.

4. The modern state of Bavaria was established in 1945 and became part of West Germany in 1949. Before that, it was a kingdom, a duchy and part of the Roman Empire, although the earliest known inhabitants were the Celts.

5. It’s highest point is the Zugspitze, 9,718 ft above sea level and also the highest mountain in Germany. It has three large glaciers and a ski resort.

6. Bavaria has two official flags – one is white and blue stripes and the other is white and blue diamond-shaped lozenges. Either can be used. The coat of arms includes several lions, a crown and a blue Pantier, which is a mythical creature from French heraldry. This one has a flame instead of a tongue.

7. Bavaria has traditional costumes which people wear on special occasions. These include Lederhosen for males and Dirndl for females. As a whole, the traditional costumes are known as Tracht.

8. Bavarian culture also includes competitive whipcracking, known as Aperschnalzen, which takes place at the end of January and early February. It involves the rhythmic snapping and cracking of a whip up to 4 metres long. It possibly began as a pagan tradition for driving winter away. The word "aper" means "area free of snow" in the Bavarian language.

9. Tourism is an important industry here. As well as the afore mentioned ski resort, there are summer resorts, health spas, and medicinal springs here, and the famous Neuschwanstein Castle. UNESCO has designated several World Heritage sites in the state including the Residence in Würzburg, a Baroque palace, some medieval towns and the Margravial Opera House in Bayreuth. And there’s Oktoberfest in Munich.

10. Famous people from Bavaria include Pope Benedict XVI, Levi Strauss, artist Albrecht Dürer and the scientist Georg Ohm.

I also write novels and short stories. If you like superheroes, psychic detectives and general weirdness you might enjoy them. 

Check out my works of fiction at https://juliehowlinauthor.wordpress.com/my-books/

26 July: Brittany

Today is the feast day of St Anne, the patron saint of Brittany, France. 10 things you might not know about Brittany.

1. If you’re thinking that “Brittany” sounds a bit like “Britain”, that’s not a coincidence. In the 5^th and 6^th centuries, Celtic tribes from Britain, Wales and Cornwall, to be exact, emigrated here to escape the Anglo Saxon invasion. Hence the area became known as “Little Britain”. This is reflected in the French word for the region, “Bretagne” and the word for Great Britain: “Grand Bretagne“.

2. In Roman times it was part of a region called “Armorica” which was derived from the Celtic word for “seaside.” Which was an apt name as Brittany is the largest peninsula in France and has more than 2,860 km (1,780 miles) of coastline, representing a third of the coastline of France as a whole. It borders the English Channel to the north and the Bay of Biscay to the south. This coastline includes The Pink Granite Coast (Côte de Granit Rose), which is famous for its distinctive pink-hued granite rocks.

3. Needless to say, the area has much maritime history. Pirates were active in the area back in the day, ambushing ships crossing the Channel. They would return to Brittany to spend their spoils, making the area rich. St Malo in particular is known for its pirate history. There’s also an annual yacht race here. Brest is a significant port city which is home to a naval base and an aquarium. Brest is the westernmost port of France on the English Channel, only 160 miles from Plymouth as the crow flies, but 375 miles from Paris. The Breton shirt, a striped top which has become a fashion staple and a symbol of France, was originally worn by the sailors here.

4. The capital city is Rennes, although Nantes is bigger in terms of population.

5. Brittany was an independent kingdom and a duchy. It became part of France when Anne de Bretagne died in 1514 without a male heir, so her cousin King Francois I, who was also her son in law, inherited the throne and in 1532 formally united the two kingdoms. He also banned the regional languages and insisted everyone spoke his language, “françoys” – French. To this day, though, there is a nationalist movement which would like it to be an independent kingdom again.

6. Brittany has its own flag and an unofficial national anthem. The flag is called The Gwenn-ha-du, meaning “Black and White” in Breton and was designed in 1923 by Morvan Marchal, an independence activist. The flag features eleven black-and-white stripes representing the traditional dioceses, and an ermine canton, ermine being a symbol of the old rulers. It was inspired by the American flag.

7. The anthem is called Bro Gozh ma Zadoù which translates as "Old Land of My Fathers". The lyrics were written in the 19^th century and the music is a combination of the Welsh anthem with a similar name, and Bro Goth agan Tasow, the national anthem of Cornwall.

8. There is a strong connection with Arthurian legend, especially around the Paimpont forest, which, it has been claimed, is the enchanted forest of Brocéliande. There is a ruined castle here, by a lake, giving rise to the possibility that this was where the Lady of the Lake hung out. There’s a dolmen said to be Merlin’s tomb and a path said to be Morgan le Fay's Val sans Retour.

9. The culture of the area continues to have strong Celtic influences. Breton is a Celtic language, still spoken by some residents, and some street signs appear in both Breton and French. There are festivals of Celtic music and dance held annually around the region.

10. Brittany is home to many megalithic monuments. In fact, the words menhir and dolmen come from the Breton language.

I also write novels and short stories. If you like superheroes, psychic detectives and general weirdness you might enjoy them. 

Check out my works of fiction at https://juliehowlinauthor.wordpress.com/my-books/

23 June: Banff National Park

On this date in 1887, Banff National Park, Canada’s first, was created. 10 things you might not know about Banff National Park.

1. It was the first national park in Canada and the third in the world.

2. It was created after railway workers discovered a natural hot spring at the base of Sulphur Mountain. Prime Minister Macdonald set aside a 26 square kilometres in 1885 to preserve the natural beauty of the area. Two years later it became a national park, then known as the Rocky Mountains Park. It was re-named Banff National Park in 1930, after Banffshire, Scotland, where the president of the Canadian Pacific Railway was born.

3. The park is located in Alberta's Rocky Mountains, 110–180 kilometres (68–112 miles) west of Calgary. It encompasses 6,641 square kilometres (2,564 sq miles) of mountainous terrain.

4. The tallest peak entirely within the park is Mount Forbes at 3,612 metres (11,850 ft). Mount Assiniboine is slightly higher at 3,618 m (11,870 ft) but is on the Banff-Mount Assiniboine Provincial Park border.

5. There are 1,600 kilometres of hiking trails in the park and more than 2,468 campsites. The Town of Banff has an elevation of 4,537 feet (1,383 metres), making it the highest town in Canada.

6. It’s the only national park in the world to have a distillery. It’s called Park Distillery. Its use of pure, glacial water and small batches are what makes its spirits especially good.

7. The park has lakes which are amazing shades of blue or green: namely Lake Louise, Moraine Lake, Peyto Lake, and Bow Lake. The colour comes from rocks which are ground into powder by the glaciers and which reflect sunlight.

8. Peyto Lake is named for a historical figure associated with the area, Bill Peyto, a pioneer and park warden who has become a legend in his own lunchtime. It’s said he raised cougar kittens and once walked into a bar carrying a live lynx on his back just to scare people. There’s a bar named for him, Wild Bill's, and he is the person pictured on the “Welcome to Banff” sign.

9. Other features include Canada’s longest cave system, Castle Mountain, was named by James Hector in 1858, because he thought it looked like a castle, and a triple divide, a rare feature of the landscape where water flowing from the mountains flows into three separate drainage basins which then end up in either the Atlantic, the Pacific, or the Arctic Ocean.

10. Banff National Park is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and welcomes over 4,500,000 tourists every year.

I also write novels and short stories. If you like superheroes, psychic detectives and general weirdness you might enjoy them. 

Check out my works of fiction at https://juliehowlinauthor.wordpress.com/my-books/

2 December: Sinkholes

On this date in 1972 "December Giant" the largest sinkhole in the US collapsed in Alabama. 10 facts about sinkholes:

1. What is a sinkhole? Basically a hole in the ground where surface rock, usually something easily eroded, like limestone, has dissolved over time. Most sinkholes are caused by karst processes, ie the chemical dissolution of carbonate rocks.

2. Sinkholes can also be caused by human activity such as abandoned mines collapsing or water main breaks.

3. They can be just several inches across, or they can be vast. The deepest and largest sinkhole in the world is the Xiaoxhai Tiankeng in China which 660m deep, with a volume of 130 million cubic metres.

4. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, Alabama, Florida, Kentucky, Missouri, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Texas are the states where sinkholes are most common. That said, the same survey puts the probability of a major sinkhole occurring in any given year at about 1 in 100.

5. In Florida, you can get insurance against sinkholes happening on your property.

6. Sometimes there is a sudden collapse with virtually no warning, but others form more gradually. It’s possible, if you live in a high risk area, to know the signs to look out for. These include fence posts or trees sagging and leaning; doors and windows not closing properly and rainfall collecting in an area where it didn’t before.

7. If a sinkhole is caught early, it’s possible to inject grout into the hole to rebuild a foundation over the degrading bedrock.

8. Sinkholes are known by other names in some parts of the world. For example, in the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico they are known as cenotes. These often expose underground rivers and caves, and were used by the Mayans as places to hide treasure or for human sacrifice. If you visit a cenote, it’s the done thing to ask the protection of the Mayan gods, so there will be no further collapses while you are in there.

9. Ancient sinkholes along coastlines, which flooded as sea levels rose, are known as Blue holes. They are so called because of the deep blue colour of the water. They are like vertical caves and are home to many species of marine animal, but divers need to be extra careful because it is hard to gauge how deep you’re going.

10. Sinkholes don’t just happen on Earth. Some were found on the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko by the Rosetta space probe.

Christmas is coming! 

A Very Variant Christmas

Last year, Jade and Gloria were embroiled in a bitter conflict to win back their throne and their ancestral home. This year, Queen Jade and Princess Gloria want to host the biggest and best Christmas party ever in their palace. They invite all their friends to come and bring guests. Not even the birth of Jade's heir just before Christmas will stop them.

The guest list includes most of Britain's complement of super-powered crime-fighters, their families and friends. What could possibly go wrong?

Gatecrashers, unexpected arrivals, exploding Christmas crackers and a kidnapping, for starters.

Far away in space, the Constellations, a cosmic peacekeeping force, have suffered a tragic loss. They need to recruit a new member to replace their dead colleague. The two top candidates are both at Jade and Gloria's party. The arrival of the recruitment delegation on Christmas Eve is a surprise for everyone; but their visit means one guest now faces a life-changing decision.

Meanwhile, an alliance of the enemies of various guests at the party has infiltrated the palace; they hide in the dungeon, plotting how best to get rid of the crime-fighters and the royal family once and for all. Problem is, they all have their own agendas and differences of opinion on how to achieve their aims.

Not to mention that this year, the ghosts who walk the corridors of the palace on Christmas Eve will be as surprised by the living as the living are by them.

Available from Amazon and Amazon Kindle

3 August: La Brea Tar Pits

On this date in 1769 the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles, California were first noticed by Europeans. The site is today known as the La Brea Tar Pits and Museum. 10 facts:

1. So what is the significance of this place? It’s like a spring only natural asphalt bubbles up instead of water, and has been doing so since the ice age. Animals, Birds and insects would get trapped in it and turned into fossils, so it is an area of great scientific interest. The museum is called the George C. Page Museum, and it displays specimens of the creatures which died there.

2. The first Europeans to discover it were from Spain, a group of explorers led by Gaspar de Portolá, to be exact. One of the party, one Father Juan Crespí made the first written observations. He described “geysers of tar issuing from the ground like springs” and christened them Los Volcanes de Brea (the Tar Volcanoes).

3. Brea is Spanish for tar, and so the name translates as The Tar Tar Pits.

4. The tar pits have yielded one of the biggest collections of Ice Age fossils in the world – more than 600 different species. These include: saber-toothed cats, dire wolves, Bison, Horses, a giant ground Sloth, turtles, Snails, clams, millipedes, Fish, gophers, an American lion, bees, beetles, birds and mammoths. Some of these were discovered while excavating a new underground car park near the site in 2009, including a nearly intact mammoth skeleton, nicknamed Zed. Zed is only missing a rear leg, a vertebra, and the top of its skull, which was sheared off by construction equipment. It has been noted that about 90% of the fossils come from carnivores, the theory being that predators would see prey trapped in the goo and think it was an easy meal, only to become mired themselves.

5. In fact, entire ecosystems have been uncovered including fossils of plants, pollen and insects. The insects, which have a low tolerance for climate variations, have taught scientists that the climate in the Los Angeles area has not changed much over the past 50,000 years.

6. In 2007, scientists discovered about 200 species of microorganisms living in the asphalt, some of which had never been observed before. Seeing as asphalt isn’t exactly the kind of environment we imagine as supportive of life (no water, little or no oxygen, and lots of toxic chemicals) scientists are particularly interested in them because they might be able to teach us something about possible life on other planets.

7. One thing they don’t dig up there, however, is Dinosaurs. Most of the fossils at La Brea date from 11,000 to 50,000 years ago—about 65 million years after dinosaurs went extinct.

8. Ancient humans used the tar as caulk for their boats, but knew to tread carefully so as not to get stuck, or perhaps if anyone did, they’d co-operate to get them out. Hence human remains have only been found once. In 1914, researchers at the tar pits discovered a 9000-year-old skeleton of a woman in her 20s, who it is believed was ceremoniously buried there with her pet Dog. That said, there was an earlier theory that perhaps she was a murder victim, Los Angeles’s first homicide case.

9. Which brings us to a 1990 movie which used the Tar Pits as a location. It’s called Bad Influence, in which the bad guy beats a woman to death in her boyfriend’s flat with his golf club in an attempt to frame the boyfriend for the murder. The boyfriend and his brother act in desperation and dump the body in the Tar Pits, where it is later found by the police.

10. While no murder victims have been found there in real life, murder weapons have been dumped there. In 2013 a police diver went 17 feet under the surface of the pits, looking for weapons in a cold case homicide, and found several items of interest. The officer in question, David Mascarenas, commented “This is by far the craziest thing I’ve ever done.”

Beta

(Combat Team Series #2)

Steff was abducted by an evil alien race, the Orbs, at fourteen. Used as a weapon for years, he eventually escapes, but his problems are just beginning. How does a man support himself when his only work experience is a paper round and using an Orb bio-integrated gun?

Warlord is an alien soldier who knows little but war. When the centuries-old conflict which ravaged his planet ends, he seeks out another world where his skills are still relevant. There are always wars on Earth, it seems. However, none of Earth's powerful armies want him.

Natalie has always wanted to visit England and sees a chance to do so while using her martial arts skills, but there are sacrifices she must make in order to fulfil her dream. 

Maggie resorted to crime to fund her sister's medical care. She uses her genetic variant abilities to gain access to the rooms of wealthy hotel guests. The Ballards look like rich pickings, but they are not what they seem. When Maggie targets them, little does she know that she is walking into a trap.

Hotel owner Hamilton Lonsdale puts together a combat team to pit against those of other multi-millionaires. He recruits Warlord, Natalie, Maggie and Steff along with a trained gorilla, a probability-altering alien, a stockbroker whose work of art proved to be much more than he'd bargained for, a marketing officer who can create psionic forcefields, a teleporting member of the landed gentry, and a socially awkward fixer. This is Combat Team Beta.

Steff never talks about his time with the Orbs, until he finds a woman who lived through it, too. Steff believes he has finally found happiness, but it is destined to be short-lived. He is left with an unusual legacy which he and Team Beta struggle to comprehend; including why something out there seems determined to destroy it.

Paperback

E book

28 April: Oceania

Today is the feast day of St Peter Louis Mary Chanel, a Patron saint of Oceania. 10 things you might not know about Oceania:

1. What is Oceania? It’s a geographical region which includes Australasia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia.

2. The Oceania region includes 14 countries: Australia, Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, New Zealand, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu, as well as several territories belonging to other countries.

3. Seafarers from Europe explored the region in the 16th century, but the Polynesians were the first explorers and settlers. For example, Spanish explorer Alonso de Salazar reached the Marshall islands in 1529, and found the islands were already inhabited by the Micronesians, who’d been there for about 3,000 years.

4. The name Oceania was chosen in 1831 by the French explorer Dumont d'Urville.

5. Oceania spans the Eastern and Western hemispheres.

6. It is flanked by two oceans: the Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean.

7. Oceania is the smallest continent in land area and the second-least populated after Antarctica. Its estimated land area is about 9,000,000 square kilometres (3,500,000 sq mi) and the population is around 46.3 million as of 2024.

8. The largest island in Oceania is Australia. The largest city in the region is Sydney.

9. The highest mountain is Puncak Jaya in Indonesia at 4,884 m (16,024 ft).

10. The longest river is the Murray River.

Beta

(Combat Team Series #2)

Steff was abducted by an evil alien race, the Orbs, at fourteen. Used as a weapon for years, he eventually escapes, but his problems are just beginning. How does a man support himself when his only work experience is a paper round and using an Orb bio-integrated gun?

Warlord is an alien soldier who knows little but war. When the centuries-old conflict which ravaged his planet ends, he seeks out another world where his skills are still relevant. There are always wars on Earth, it seems. However, none of Earth's powerful armies want him.

Natalie has always wanted to visit England and sees a chance to do so while using her martial arts skills, but there are sacrifices she must make in order to fulfil her dream. 

Maggie resorted to crime to fund her sister's medical care. She uses her genetic variant abilities to gain access to the rooms of wealthy hotel guests. The Ballards look like rich pickings, but they are not what they seem. When Maggie targets them, little does she know that she is walking into a trap.

Hotel owner Hamilton Lonsdale puts together a combat team to pit against those of other multi-millionaires. He recruits Warlord, Natalie, Maggie and Steff along with a trained gorilla, a probability-altering alien, a stockbroker whose work of art proved to be much more than he'd bargained for, a marketing officer who can create psionic forcefields, a teleporting member of the landed gentry, and a socially awkward fixer. This is Combat Team Beta.

Steff never talks about his time with the Orbs, until he finds a woman who lived through it, too. Steff believes he has finally found happiness, but it is destined to be short-lived. He is left with an unusual legacy which he and Team Beta struggle to comprehend; including why something out there seems determined to destroy it.

Paperback

E book

25 May: Wessex Day

Today is Wessex Day, so here are 10 things you might not know about Wessex:

1. In its heyday, Wessex, or the Kingdom of the West Saxons covered an area of 4,440 sq. miles (11,500 km2). It included Hampshire, Isle of Wight, Dorset, Wiltshire, the west Berkshire and east Somerset.

2. Its capital was Winchester.

3. According to legend, the kingdom was founded by Cerdic and Cynric in around 519 after Cerdic killed a king called Natanleod. Cerdic was the first king of Wessex.

4. The last king of Wessex was Athelstan, who was on the throne when England was unified in 927.

5. Probably the most famous king of Wessex was Alfred the Great, who was known for fighting Vikings and burning cakes. He was also a champion of education and the legal system, promoting the use of English, rather than Latin in schools.

6. A version of Wessex was the setting for many of Thomas Hardy’s novels. Hardy's Wessex excluded Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire, but the city of Oxford, which he called "Christminster", was included. Berkshire is known in the novels as "North Wessex".

7. Prince Edward was given the title "Earl of Wessex" when he married Sophie who became Countess of Wessex. The title had not been used since the last earl, King Harold Godwinson, was killed at the Battle of Hastings in 1066.

8. The symbol of Wessex is a wyvern or Dragon. This creature features on the Wessex flag designed by William Crampton in the 1970s. The 43rd (Wessex) Infantry Division, and post war regional 43 (Wessex) Brigade adopted a symbol consisting of a gold wyvern on a black/dark blue background. The aforementioned Sophie, Countess of Wessex, has a blue wyvern on her coat of arms.

9. The region figures prominently in legends of King Arthur and the knights of the Round Table.

10. The ITV television series Broadchurch takes place in Wessex. Its characters attend South Wessex Secondary School.

New!!!

The first in a new series! It has invading aliens, gladiator-style contests, rivalry and romance.

The six richest people in Britain decide to hold a contest to settle the question of which of them is most successful. It will be a gladiator style contest with each entrant fielding a team of ten super-powered combatants. Entrepreneur Llew Powell sets out to put together his team, which includes his former lover, an employee of his company with a fascinating hobby, two refugees from another dimension (a lonely giant and a drunken sailor), two sisters bound together by a promise, a diminutive doctor, a former Tibetan monk initiate and two androids with a history. As the team train together, alliances form, friendships and more develop, while others find the past is not easy to leave behind.

Meanwhile, a ruthless race of aliens has its eyes on the Earth. Already abducting and enslaving humans, they work towards the final invasion which would destroy life on Earth as we know it. Powell’s group, Combat Team Alpha, stumble upon one of the wormholes the aliens use to travel to Earth and witness for themselves the horrors in store if the aliens aren’t stopped. Barely escaping with their lives, they realise there are more important things to worry about than a fighting competition.

Get it in paperback

Get it for your kindle

9 May: Europe

Today is Europe Day, so here are ten facts about Europe:

1. The name comes from Europa, a princess in Greek mythology. Her name means 'wide-gazing' or 'broad of aspect'.

2. The first recorded usage of Europe as a geographic term is in the Homeric Hymn to Delian Apollo, in reference to the western shore of the Aegean Sea.

3. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east and covers about 10.18 million km2 (3.93 million square miles), or 2% of Earth's surface. It’s the second smallest continent after Oceania.

4. The population of Europe was about 745 million (about 10% of the world population) in 2021.

5. Europe comprises about fifty sovereign states. About 200 different languages are spoken.

6. Both the smallest town and the smallest country in the world are located in Europe. The smallest country is Vatican City and the smallest town is Hum, in Croatia, which has a population of just 30 people. Hum is also famous for a type of brandy called biska, which is made from mistletoe. According to legend, ancient Celtic Druids left the recipe in Hum around 2,000 years ago.

7. The largest country in Europe is Russia, which accounts for 39% of the area and 15% of the population.

8. Russia also has the tallest building in Europe, the Lakhta Center in St Petersburg, which is 462 metres high and has 87 stories.

9. The largest church in Europe is St. Peter’s Basilica.

10. Europe even has a rain forest. The Perućica Rainforest is in Bosnia/Herzegovina.

New!!!

The first in a new series! It has invading aliens, gladiator-style contests, rivalry and romance.

The six richest people in Britain decide to hold a contest to settle the question of which of them is most successful. It will be a gladiator style contest with each entrant fielding a team of ten super-powered combatants. Entrepreneur Llew Powell sets out to put together his team, which includes his former lover, an employee of his company with a fascinating hobby, two refugees from another dimension (a lonely giant and a drunken sailor), two sisters bound together by a promise, a diminutive doctor, a former Tibetan monk initiate and two androids with a history. As the team train together, alliances form, friendships and more develop, while others find the past is not easy to leave behind.

Meanwhile, a ruthless race of aliens has its eyes on the Earth. Already abducting and enslaving humans, they work towards the final invasion which would destroy life on Earth as we know it. Powell’s group, Combat Team Alpha, stumble upon one of the wormholes the aliens use to travel to Earth and witness for themselves the horrors in store if the aliens aren’t stopped. Barely escaping with their lives, they realise there are more important things to worry about than a fighting competition.

Get it in paperback

Get it for your kindle

1 April: Herefordshire

The ceremonial county of Herefordshire was established on this date in 1998. Since 1974 the administrative county of Herefordshire, formed in 1889, was merged with neighbouring Worcestershire to form Hereford and Worcester. However, on this date in 1998 the two counties were separated again.

1. The name Hereford is derived from the Anglo-Saxon word “Here-ford”, meaning “army crossing”.

2. It is bordered by Gloucestershire to the south-east, Worcestershire to the east, Shropshire to the north and the Welsh counties of Monmouthshire and Powys to the west.

3. Hereford is the largest settlement with about a third of the county’s population living there. Other significant places including Leominster, Ross-on-Wye, and Ledbury.

4. The county is home to the largest cider factory in the world, Bulmer’s. Bulmer’s has the largest largest vat too: installed in 1975 and holding 15 million gallons of Cider.

5. Hereford cattle are sought after worldwide as well. Cattle in Hereford have been bred to maximise beef yield since 1742. Which is probably why the Hereford United Football team is nicknamed The Bulls.

6. Speaking of which, The Bulls are in the record books for a dubious reason. In 1992 they had the most players sent off in a single game – four. Nevertheless they managed a 1-1 draw against Northampton Town despite finishing the game with only seven players.

7. There are two Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty in the county. The Wye Valley, located south of Hereford, and the Malvern Hills in the east of the county, along its border with Worcestershire.

8. In 2004 a public vote chose Mistletoe as the country flower of Herefordshire.

9. Writers who found the area inspiring include Catherine Cookson, whose first novel was inspired by her stay in a hospital just outside Hereford in 1950, while in the late 1960s, Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber wrote the bulk of Jesus Christ Superstar in a Herefordshire country hotel.

10. Famous people from the county include Sir Edward Elgar, Mike Oldfield, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Noele Gordon (Crossroads actress), serial killer Fred West, Richard Hammond (Top Gear presenter), Mark Labett (aka The Beast on The Chase), writer Dennis Potter, and, believe it or not, Frank Oz, the puppeteer who gave us the Muppets and Yoda.

8 March: East Anglia Day

Today is East Anglia Day. 10 things you might not know about East Anglia:

1. East Anglia is generally deemed to consist of Norfolk, Suffolk, parts of Cambridgeshire and the Isle of Ely which was added on the marriage of East Anglian princess Æthelthryth. Some definitions include Essex as well.

2. East Anglia is bordered to the north and east by the North Sea, to the south by the estuaries of the rivers Orwell and Stour, and to the west an undefined land border with the rest of England.

3. The name derives from the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the East Angles. The Angles were a people from Anglia, a region of modern day Germany.

4. The kingdom of East Anglia was formed around 520 as a merger between the North Folk and the South Folk, that is the Angles who’d settled there about a century earlier.

5. The first king of East Anglia was Wehha, "The first to rule over the East Angles", according to Nennius. Wehha Died in 571.

6. The symbol of East Anglia is a shield of three golden crowns, placed two above one, on a Blue background, which has been used since Medieval times. The arms are effectively identical to the coat of arms of Sweden. The modern East Anglian flag, superimposes the blue shield with three crowns on a St George's cross.

7. While Britain experiences about 25 Earthquakes every year, it’s rare for them to occur in East Anglia. In 1994, however, there was an earthquake in Norwich which measured 4.0 on the Richter scale, and in 2008 they felt the effects of a 5.2 quake centred in Lincolnshire.

8. There is little stone for building in the area but plenty of clay and sand, so by the 1800s brick making was a significant industry. White or Grey bricks were common, and houses were often whitewashed in pastel colours like “Suffolk Pink”.

9. Agriculture is another major industry. The region is sometimes referred to as “Britain’s breadbasket” because the climate and soil are ideal for growing cereal crops.

10. In olden times it was a stopping off point for farmers taking animals to market in London. We’re talking before trains were invented and the only way for a Scottish farmer to get his animals to market in London was to walk them there. This could take several months. East Anglia was a good place to stop because of the abundance of grasslands and root crops so the animals could be fattened up before being sold. Farmers of the time would also walk birds, ducks, Turkeys and Geese, to market and the birds were given special shoes to protect their feet.

22 October: Princeton University

On this date in 1746, Princeton University received its charter. 10 things you might not know about Princeton:

1. When it received its charter, it wasn’t known as Princeton but as The College of New Jersey. The name was changed in 1896.

2. The main campus consists of more than 200 buildings on 600 acres (2.4 km2) in Princeton, New Jersey.

3. Talking of which, the use of the word “campus” to mean the grounds of a university, originated at Princeton.

4. The official motto is Dei Sub Numine Viget (Under God’s Power She Flourishes).

5. However, Princeton explicitly prohibited the admission of women from 1746 until 1969. That said, the first female graduate student was accepted in 1961 as a “special case”. Her name was Sabra Follett Meservey.

6. Nassau Hall is the oldest building on campus. Completed in 1756, it was the first seat of the New Jersey Legislature in 1776. Nearby is a courtyard called Cannon Green which has an actual cannon buried in it. The cannon in question was left behind by British troops as they fled following the Battle of Princeton.

7. The Princeton colours are Orange and Black and hence its mascot is a Tiger.

8. Some of Princeton’s traditions have included climbing to the top of Nassau Hall to steal the bell clapper, which rings to signal the start of classes on the first day of the school year. However, the health and safety people have put an end to that one by removing the clapper permanently. There also used to be a Nude Olympics which went the same way thanks to sexual harassment and safety concerns. One that still exists is a fight between a freshman and a sophomore over a cane. This originated in the 1870s when sophomores used to get envious of all the freshmen turning up with fancy canes and used to steal the canes and hit the freshmen with them. Another is walking through the university’s main gates, the FitzRandolph Gates, at graduation. It’s said that any student who walks through those gates before that will not graduate.

9. Princeton played in the first intercollegiate football game against Rutgers University in 1869.

10. Famous alumni include: U.S. Presidents James Madison and Woodrow Wilson, former First Lady Michelle Obama, Amazon CEO and founder Jeff Bezos, astronaut Pete Conrad (who took a Princeton flag to the moon in 1969), Actors James Stewart, David Duchovny and Brooke Shields; and writers F Scott Fitzgerald and Jodi Picoult.

Character birthday

Forcefield, aka Emily Lambert, a member of Combat Team Beta. Her power is creating a force field. Emily first used her powers as a teenager, to keep her over-protective parents out of her bedroom. They searched the room several times while she was at school, thinking she was hiding some kind of gadget in there.

She became involved with Combat Team Beta when, as part of her job in advertising, she was assigned to the Paradise Hotels account and given the job of coming up with a campaign for the Combat Teams. Realising she could help, she told them about her powers and volunteered to be part of the team.